Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review (CCT)

Objectives of the CCT Review

Under the Affirmation of Commitments (AoC), ICANN  is committed to ensuring that, as it contemplates expanding the top-level domain space, the various issues that are involved will be adequately addressed prior to implementation.  These include issues such as competition, consumer protection, security, stability and resiliency, malicious abuse issues, sovereignty concerns, and rights protection. The AoC also requires ICANN to convene a community-driven review to examine the extent to which the introduction or expansion of gTLDs has promoted competition, consumer trust and consumer choice, as well as the effectiveness of:

• The application and evaluation process
• Safeguards put in place to mitigate issues involved in the introduction or expansion

Timeline of Review

• The AoC specifies that the review will be organized if and when new gTLDs have been in operation for one year
• Subsequent reviews are to be organized two years after the first review, and then no less frequently than every four years

Under this timeline, the first CCT Review was launched in October 2015.

The graphic below illustrates phases and status of each review - a  indicates that all activities within a given phase have been completed.  The chart that follows the graphic provides further details of key activities and milestones within each phase – you can view these details by clicking on each of the phases in the graphic.  The table also contains links to relevant documents.

Metrics to Support the CCT Review

ICANN has been conducting a series of activities to prepare for this upcoming review. These activities include developing metrics and collecting data for benchmarking purposes to be available to the review team when it is selected.  A comprehensive set of metrics and data were adopted by the ICANN Board based on recommendations from the community.  These metrics have been collected by ICANN to assess various aspects of new gTLDs.  For further information related to the work of the community that proposed these metrics, please visit the IAG-CCT Wiki.

The metrics and data collected by ICANN to support the CCT Review are published here.  ICANN commissioned a global survey and economic study to gather data on some of the recommended metrics.  The baseline report on consumers and registrants has been published, as well as the baseline assessent of competition in the domain name marketplace.

Global Consumer and Registrant Surveys

ICANN commissioned a global survey to measure aspects of consumer awareness, perceived consumer choice, experience and trust related to the current generic top-level domain (gTLD) landscape and the domain name system (DNS).  Nielsen was retained to conduct an initial survey to create a meaningful baseline of data on Internet users' and domain name registrants' attitudes and will perform a follow-on survey, to generate a set of comparison data to inform the CCT Review.  This second survey will be conducted one year after the first survey was conducted to determine how opinions may have changed over time and as more new gTLDs are available in the domain name marketplace.

ICANN has published the Phase One Results from Multiyear Consumer Study of the Domain Name Landscape.  The Phase One study surveyed 6,144 consumers aged 18+ representing Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America, and was administered in 18 languages and drawn from 24 countries. The research was conducted by Nielsen between February 2-19, 2015.  The full Phase One Report is available here. 

ICANN also commissioned Nielsen to conduct a global survey of domain name registrants and their perceived sense of trust and choice in the domain name space.  Results from the Phase One survey are available here.

Economic Study

ICANN retained the Analysis Group to conduct an economic study examining pricing trends and other competition indicators in the global DNS market. The Analysis Group designed and executed an initial study to create a meaningful baseline of data on multiple factors of competition and will perform a follow-on study one year later, to generate and analyze a set of comparison data.

Results from the Phase One study are available here.

Additional Information

More information on the CCT Review is available on the CCT-Wiki.

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